An army officer noticed one of his soldiers behaving oddly. The soldier would pick up any piece of paper he found, frown and say, "That's not it," and put it down again.

This went on for some time, until the officer arranged to have the soldier psychologically tested. The psychologist concluded that the soldier was deranged, and wrote out his discharge from the army.

The soldier picked it up, smiled and said, "That's it."

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Welcome back

As always at this time of year, we are pleased to welcome back old friends and new at the start of another teaching year. We hope you are all well and feeling relaxed after the summer break.

Last year was one of change and uncertainty in the field and this year is likely to offer more challenges. At CPCAB we pride ourselves on offering as much support to our centres as we possibly can and we will continue to work hard behind the scenes to stay at the forefront of future developments.

Head Office staff

This month we are delighted to welcome a good friend into our close-knit team at Head Office. Heather Price taught CPCAB’s qualifications at Strode College in Street in Somerset for some 11 years, and has been a valued external verifier and external assessor as well. She has taken on the new role of Qualification Leader, levels 4 and above, working in close collaboration with Traci Postings who carries out the same function for levels 2 and 3.

As well as taking on this demanding and busy role, Heather continues to offer bereavement counselling and supervision with Cruse. When she does find time to relax she enjoys travelling, particularly skiing holidays and spends as much time as she can in her garden.

Another long-standing friend has also joined us this term. Many of you already know Hilary Tolhurst, also a Strode College tutor who has done invaluable work for us in both EV and EA. Hilary will be making new centres more aware of CPCAB and the services we offer, as well as offering enhanced support to both new and established existing centres. Like Heather, Hilary is a local person and is very familiar with the specialised environment that is CPCAB.

We look forward to building even closer relationships with these two talented ladies and hope you will also appreciate their support.

Documentation and changes for September 2008

We continue to pay close attention to feedback from our tutors and to improve our service. As a result we have made several changes and enhancements for September 2008 as follows:

mock papers for CSK-L2 and CST-L3 are now ONLY on your tutor CD and not on the CPCAB website

for the first time sample answers and guidance for CSK-L2 and CST-L3 external assessment are available on your tutor CD

“quick reference” criteria check lists are available for each qualification as tutor support docs

there is a new TC-L4 mock paper. Centres can now use CDs instead of audio tapes for the TC-L4 external assessment

we have issued revised guidance for PC-L5 and CBT-L5 case reviews following review and evaluation.

Recording the results of internal assessment:
Please note that there are new guidelines for recording internal assessment results and for requesting certificates for deferred candidates. Please refer to your Tutor User Guide for further details.

It is also now possible to record the results of internal assessment on-line.

Ofqual and the QCA

Tutors will notice that certificates for the year 2008/09 will show the new Ofqual logo in the place of the former QCA one. We will be updating all CPCAB documentation during the year ahead to reflect the change.

The change in regulatory function from QCA to Ofqual will be one of the news items to be discussed at our forthcoming standardisation days and we hope we will be able to answer any questions you may like to raise.

Regulation and the HPC

CPCAB has submitted a nomination for membership of the HPC Professional Liaison Group (PLG) that is being established to determine the protected titles, standards of training and proficiency, and grand parenting arrangements for the regulation of counselling and psychotherapy. There are a very limited number of places for stakeholders. We expect to hear the outcome at the beginning of October.

In the meantime HPC has issued a consultation entitled ‘The Call for Ideas’ which invites stakeholder views on the above issues in preparation for the work of the PLG. The closing date is 24th October. CPCAB will issue an organisational response which we will post on the website as soon as it’s available. If you wish to view the HPC consultation or submit your own individual or group response you can access the consultation at http://www.hpc-uk.org/aboutus/consultations/index.asp?id=72.

Find a Counsellor

Excitement is building up at the CPCAB offices as the October launch date for our sister company, the Counselling Channel, gets nearer. Those of you who were at the CPCAB conference in April this year may remember the pre-launch presentation and we hope you have enjoyed logging on to the pilot website (www.counsellingchannel.tv).

One feature you may find particularly interesting is the ‘find a counsellor’ section. This new online directory of counselling services is designed to put viewers, all potential clients, in touch with the services they need.

For details, including cost of registration, click here. There is a £20 discount on the annual fee for all applications received before 1st December 2008.